Here is another SA...interesting twist...I like how this fellow thinks:

BlackBerry Prepares The New Keyboard
Apr 24 2013, 17:53 | about: BBRY
BlackBerry (BBRY) is preparing to release the new Q-10, which should hit Canadian and European stores around the first of the month and then the United States in the coming weeks. Bloomberg is saying:

The phone’s most unusual feature is its screen. Unlike just about every other smartphone, whose displays are taller than they are wide, the new BlackBerry’s is a 3.1-inch-diagonal square with a resolution of 720 by 720 pixels.

That means, among other things, that it can show much less content per screen than other phones -- for example, icons for 12 apps, as opposed to 24 on Apple (AAPL)’s iPhone 5 and 20 on the Samsung (005930) Galaxy. You can theoretically watch a movie on it, but I can’t imagine why you’d want to.

BlackBerry enthusiasts, of course, don’t really care about that. What they want to know is: “What about the keyboard?”

I used to be a keyboard guy. My first "smartphone" was the T-Mobile MDA, which had a slide-out keyboard and a touch-sensitive screen. Unfortunately it also ran Windows Mobile, which was buggier than a roach motel and liked to blow up with not-very-amusing frequency, including at times you really wish it wouldn't (like during a call.) It also had a stylus that you actually needed to use it productively.

Along the long path I ditched the hard keyboard and moved to touch screen phones, where I am today. I love the Z-10 and very much liked my Samsung SGS-II, along with the other touch-screen phones I had before that.

What changed? How I used the phone changed.

In short I went from my phone use (aside from making and receiving calls, of course) being mostly about texts and emails to media consumption in one form or another.

That's what drove the "smartphone revolution", incidentally.

But at the same time it did two other things, one of which is going to eventually blow up in people's faces, and the other which gives BlackBerry a unique market that the Q-10 will address.

First, when we turned to media consumers with our "smartphones" the traditional Madison Avenue folks along with the upstarts in the "new media" space all descended on us as sheep are sent toward the barn to be shorn. Firms like Facebook arose with the so-called "app ecosystem." That "ecosystem" is not, contrary to often-pumped media nonsense, about "what you want." It is about advertising -- stuffing commercial messages under your nose and trying to convince you to buy things at a time when you would otherwise be inaccessible to the marketing mavens.

So far nobody has come up with the "magic sauce" in this space and I argue that it's unlikely that anyone will. The reason is simply real estate and the annoyance factor. Traditional television has 12 minutes of advertising per hour. That is, about 20% of the material is advertising. The reason for this is quite simple -- people seem to be willing to put up with about 20% "trash" in the content they wish to consume; beyond that they turn it off as the annoyance factor rises up far enough that the "draw" (the content being sent) is no longer sufficient to keep the consumer's attention.

If your smart-phone screen is 3.5" long (a roughly ~4" diagonal measurement) then this means that 0.7" of that, or just over a half-inch, can be advertising, and that tiny space is not big enough to monetize effectively.

This, incidentally, is why I believe that Facebook's mobile "push" will fail and so will the other ad-supported media models on handheld devices. There simply isn't enough room to drive revenue without trashing the ratios that you must maintain as the maximum you can intrude into someone's user experience before they turn you off.

So how does this all tie into the Q-10? Simple: The (foolish and ultimately guaranteed to fail, in my view) drive to media phones, where the business model is one not of giving the consumer what they want but rather, in fact, is all about trying to reach into their wallet on a continuing basis through the day left those who didn't change their model of what they do with a mobile device out in the cold.

There are a lot of those people -- they see the "mobile smartphone" as primarily a means to make and receive calls, of course, but also as a primary means of textual communication, especially email.

This user of the technology literally has nowhere to go in the current "smarphone" space.

Until May 1st, that is, when they do -- the Q-10.

I suspect the share of the total smartphone market that rests in these users is somewhere between 10-15% of the whole. The demographic is grossly skewed toward the professional user of technology, which means incomes of $100k/yr+ and this segment tends to wear suits to work rather than jeans. They drive Audis, BMWs and Mercedes rather than Ford F-150s. They demand secure storage and secure communications. And they want their damn keyboard, because when they get an email from someone the need to answer it with more than a "K" or other short quip -- they need to be able to actually communicate using the device.

These people not only will make the sacrifice of screen real estate for the keyboard, they demand it. They also want very long battery life because the annoyance factor of running out of power in the middle of the day is not about annoyance, it's about missing a critical email from a client, and that in turns means lost money.

That's the Q-10's market and it is likely the most-understated opportunity that BlackBerry -- and nobody else -- is aiming at. The reason nobody else is aiming at it is because the IOS and Android phone and software makers are all wedded to the phone being a means to sell you things. That's their model, whether it be Google or Apple.

For those who use their phones as business tools and find the idea of carrying a marketing portal used to blast their eyeballs with ads from Google, Apple or Facebook extraordinarily offensive, there's the Q-10.

You could place a limit sell for a really high price...say 110.00 with as long a window as your brokerage allows. I did that before launch....didn't stop the share price from tanking lol....but if by some weird coincidence everyone did that...short squeeze to 110.00 please....never happen but fun to dream.

Originally Posted by cecilia_cc

Let's we all do it. I just do that, don't want shorts to manipulate the price again

Must really suck for them now that they really have to watch what they broadcast. Since then, they've been muzzled. lol.

As I explained before, although the shorts were trying the best they could (such as false rumor, lies, and factor twisting, hiring the bloggers to wash, etc), they were losing the big money and the game starting 9/24/12 (BBRY SP = 6.22 range, and short interest at 85 million shares).
For example, the highest short interest increases occurs in the following four periods of the most recently months with the SP on the downtrend
12/14/12 to 12/31/12
1/31/13 to 2/15/13
2/15/13 to 2/28/13
3/28/13 to 4/15/13
This means that the short sellers were throwing the shares when the stock price going down (so receive less proceeding).
On the other hand, the SP was on the uptrend in the only time period (12/31/12 to 1/15/13) when the short interest decreased.
it means that the short sellers were covering the shares with higher SP when they shorted, so the cost was more than the received.

This is the exact mirror image with the trading strategy I posted before, i.e.,
The longs on the other side, were buying at the low and selling back at high while the shorts were selling at the low and buying back at the high.
Such a losing game for the shorts will continue as long as they continue to try manipulating this stock. The only way for them to end such a losing game is Covering All The Short Position RIGHT NOW.

Ok, beer-thirty for me gang. Think I'll go home and have a few cold ones as I contemplate the fall of society as we know it and plan accordingly. lol. Doomsday prepper show coming on I want to see. lol. Better stock up on beers before the shorts squeeze the entire stock market causing it to collapse and spawn the fall of society. lol

Ok, beer-thirty for me gang. Think I'll go home and have a few cold ones as I contemplate the fall of society as we know it and plan accordingly. lol. Doomsday prepper show coming on I want to see. lol. Better stock up on beers before the shorts squeeze the entire stock market causing it to collapse and spawn the fall of society. lol

Don't forget Yukon Gold...my wedding band is made from gold I found on one of those creeks a million years ago lol.

Does anyone think the upcoming AGM will provoke a bit of a spike? The way I see it shares will be called back from the shorts for voting purposes...given the volume shorted and the relatively small amount available someone has to pay somewhere...no?

For practical reasons in dealing with public companies, shares owned by an investor may not be registered in the name of the investor. For example, if you buy 1000 shares of Nortel through CIBC Wood Gundy, those shares will be held in a CIBC account for your benefit. The shares may be registered in the name of CIBC or they may be registered in the name of a broker or clearing agency. The certificates may be endorsed and may be in a "street" form, i.e. negotiable on the street - like a cheque which has been endorsed by its owner. This makes the trading of shares simpler in that they do not always have to be tracked as to their beneficial owner. However, as a shareholder, you have the right to ask that the shares be registered in your name and delivered to you. In fact, shareholders often ask that this be done. They may like the idea of putting away a certificate for safekeeping, being registered, or the "prestige" of ownership. Sometimes shareholders demand certificates in a short sale squeeze. This may happen when a stock is heavily shorted. By demanding the "certs", shorters may be forced into the market to buy shares in order to make good on the delivery request. This will serve to work against the shorters by driving prices up...but that's another subject!

Last edited by take99; 04-24-13 at 06:50 PM.
Reason: LOL ITS AN OLD QUOTE

For practical reasons in dealing with public companies, shares owned by an investor may not be registered in the name of the investor. For example, if you buy 1000 shares of Nortel through CIBC Wood Gundy, those shares will be held in a CIBC account for your benefit. The shares may be registered in the name of CIBC or they may be registered in the name of a broker or clearing agency. The certificates may be endorsed and may be in a "street" form, i.e. negotiable on the street - like a cheque which has been endorsed by its owner. This makes the trading of shares simpler in that they do not always have to be tracked as to their beneficial owner. However, as a shareholder, you have the right to ask that the shares be registered in your name and delivered to you. In fact, shareholders often ask that this be done. They may like the idea of putting away a certificate for safekeeping, being registered, or the "prestige" of ownership. Sometimes shareholders demand certificates in a short sale squeeze. This may happen when a stock is heavily shorted. By demanding the "certs", shorters may be forced into the market to buy shares in order to make good on the delivery request. This will serve to work against the shorters by driving prices up...but that's another subject!

I have heard that if you have a limit order on your shares then your shares cannot be included in the available pool of shortable shares. I have no support for this.

BlackBerry Expects to Sell Q10 for $50 More Than IPhone
By Hugo Miller - Apr 24, 2013 2:15 PM MT Facebook Share LinkedIn Google +1 0 Comments
Print QUEUEQ
BlackBerry (BBRY), the Canadian smartphone maker, expects to start selling its new Q10 keyboard-equipped model in the U.S. by the end of May for about $249, a price that’s $50 more than Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s top-selling iPhone 5.

AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T- Mobile USA Inc. -- the four largest U.S. carriers -- have all confirmed they will sell the phone, Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry said yesterday. The suggested $249 price assumes that buyers will also sign up for a two-year contract.

The move signals that BlackBerry won’t be competing with Apple on price, even as it tries to claw back market share lost to the iPhone and other smartphones. The iPhone 5 with 16 gigabytes of memory sells for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Pricing the Q10 above that level is probably a deliberate effort to target business users with deep pockets and expense accounts, said Anil Doradla, an analyst at William Blair & Co. in Chicago.

“They’ve decided this is not going to be a mass appeal phone, but one targeted at road warriors,” said Doradla, who has a neutral rating on BlackBerry shares. “It’s not the wrong thing to do.”

BlackBerry’s stock climbed 4 percent to $14.90 at the close in New York. The shares have risen 26 percent this year on optimism that the new BlackBerry 10 lineup can fuel a comeback.

Keyboard Model
The Q10 is the second phone in BlackBerry’s revamped lineup, following the touch-screen Z10, which sells for $199.99. The company is counting on the newer model to appeal to longtime users who want to stick with a physical keypad, rather than an iPhone-like screen.

The company, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd. (BB), has steadily lost ground over the past three years to Apple’s iOS and Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Combined, those two platforms accounted for 91 percent of global smartphone sales in the fourth quarter, according to IDC. BlackBerry’s share dropped to 3.2 percent.

BlackBerry also said yesterday that Canadian carriers will begin selling the Q10 on May 1. Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI/B), BCE Inc. (BCE) and Telus Corp. (T), the country’s largest carriers, plan to offer the phone for C$199 ($194) on a three-year contract. The Q10 also will be sold in Canada by retailers such as Best Buy Co. (BBY) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)

Doesn't work for me. I can't set an "Unreasonably High" sales price. I tried doing that.

Originally Posted by Shanerredflag

You could place a limit sell for a really high price...say 110.00 with as long a window as your brokerage allows. I did that before launch....didn't stop the share price from tanking lol....but if by some weird coincidence everyone did that...short squeeze to 110.00 please....never happen but fun to dream.

Surging sales of smartphones, including its own Galaxy range, has Samsung turning to its biggest rival to buy mobile dynamic random access memory chips. For the first time, the company that makes more than half the world’s mobile DRAM chips may buy them from SK Hynix Inc. (000660), said Shin Jong Kyun, head of Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung’s mobile business.

Chip Shortage Looms as Samsung Courts Rival to Fill Orders Chip Shortage Looms as Samsung Courts Rival to Fill Orders David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
The supply squeeze doesn’t just pose a problem for Samsung, which releases its new flagship Galaxy S4 phone tomorrow. The chips, along with NAND memory, are needed in handsets and tablet computers made by Apple Inc. (AAPL), Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) and HTC Corp. (2498) for functions from playing video and multitasking to storing books and photographs.

“Not only DRAM chips, but all memory chips for mobile devices show signs of shortages,” said Kim Sung In, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities Co. in Seoul, who recommends buying both Samsung and Hynix shares. “Samsung’s biggest chip customer is itself and things will only get out of hand with the approach of the third quarter, typically the strongest time of year.”

The second half of the year is when Samsung expects to release a new smartphone using its own Tizen operating system and an updated version of the Galaxy Note device. It’s also when Apple usually releases details of a new handset.

Prices Recover
The rising demand for mobile chips follows a glut in production of the type of DRAM used in personal computers that saw prices slump, driving some producers to the wall.

SK Hynix, Micron, Nanya Technology Corp. (2408), Powerchip Technology Corp. and other Samsung rivals lost a combined $21 billion from 2008 to 2012, according to analyst estimates and company data compiled by Bloomberg. Some Taiwanese makers quit the business, while Tokyo-based Elpida Memory Inc. was forced to seek protection from creditors before Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc. (MU) agreed to buy it last year.

Chip prices have since recovered as suppliers including Micron kept DRAM output steady. Last year, Toshiba Corp. (6502), the world’s second-biggest maker of NAND flash memory, said it will reduce production by 30 percent.

Benchmark 2Gb, 1333Mhz DRAM chips have more than doubled to $1.69 since the end of November, according to TrendForce Corp.’s DRAMeXchange, Asia’s largest market for the components.

Apple Demand
“Mobile DRAM supply started to slow from the third quarter of last year as players had cut investment a lot,” said Byun Han Joon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul. “There’s a possibility that demand for mobile chips may increase faster than had been anticipated so Samsung is trying to brace for it.”

SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest supplier, counts Apple among its biggest customers, with the maker of iPhones providing 9.3 percent of sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Cupertino, California-based company ranks behind only Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which assembles the iPad, the data show.

SK Hynix, which has been unprofitable in four of the past five years, yesterday posted first-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates as chip prices rebound.

Shares of the Icheon, South Korea-based company have risen 13 percent this year compared with a 3.1 percent drop in the benchmark Kospi index and a 2.4 percent decline for Samsung.

Smartphone Sales
Global smartphone sales rose 34 percent last year to $294 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Industries.

Among the flagship devices announced in the past 12 months are HTC’s One, Nokia’s Lumia 920, the BlackBerry Z10 and Apple’s iPhone 5.

“Chip demand for smartphones remains strong while the market will be flooded out with new devices,” said Lee Sei Cheol, a Seoul-based analyst at Meritz Securities Co.

Samsung’s capital spending on chips was 13.85 trillion won ($12.3 billion) last year after the company spent 13 trillion won on the business the year before.

As of the fourth quarter of last year, Samsung had 51 percent of the global mobile DRAM market, followed by SK Hynix’s 25 percent and 20 percent for Elpida, according to market researcher IHS iSuppli.

Increased Production
Any supply squeeze is likely to help second-tier players such as Taoyuan, Taiwan-based Nanya Technology Corp., which is ramping up production of mobile chips and expects the business will climb to 10 percent of revenue by the end of the year from 1 percent in the first quarter. Inotera Memories Inc. (3474), a Taiwan- based venture between Nanya and Micron, expects mobile DRAM will rise to 20 percent of sales by the fourth quarter from 5 percent at the end of 2012, Chairman Charles Kau said.

Toshiba is closely monitoring the market for signs of shortages that may be based on “excessive expectations,” spokesman Atsushi Ido said by phone, declining to elaborate. Samsung, Hynix and Elpida declined to comment on output plans.

Part of Samsung’s dilemma with mobile DRAM is its own success in making mobiles, which is the biggest profit driver at the company. Telecommunications contributed 67 percent of operating income in 2012, compared with 14 percent for chips and 11 percent for liquid crystal displays, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

While Apple has focused on high-end devices and limited its handset releases to one a year since the first iPhone, Samsung offers smartphones across a wider range of prices, all requiring mobile DRAM chips.

“Demand for Samsung’s mobile phones is way too strong” for the company’s semiconductor business to keep up, said Kiwoom Securities’ Kim.